Hey guys! How’s it going? I just checked out the forums yesterday and I noticed a few people who had requested the song “Hero of War” by Rise Against. I’ve had actually never heard of that song until yesterday, so I checked it out on YouTube and thought it’s actually a pretty nice song. So I played around with it for a little while and decided to post this up and hopefully get you guys started.
It’s got three bar chords in it, so it’s a great practice for that. I definitely needed to practice, so I jumped right on with that song.
So let’s start with the chords you’re going to need for today. I’m going to start with an E chord. What I’d like you to do right up the beginning, the E chord, instead of playing it maybe with your index finger on that G string, put your middle finger on the G string and then your pinkie and ring on the A and D. So from here, we have to go to a G#M and it’ll just make the transition much easier. So once again, now the E major.
Now, we’re going to go to the G#m. You’re taking these two fingers already keeping them in that shape, just moving them from the 2nd fret to the 6th fret taking your index and barring it across the 4th fret. That’s your G#m. If you’re having a little bit of trouble still doing your bar chords getting to squeeze in, you just don’t quite have that muscle built up that’s here, what I would suggest to do for here for this is to take that middle finger that’s doing nothing and just wrap it over the top of your index finger. That will give you a little more pressure, squeezing down a little more. That’s the second chord.
The third chord we’re going to need is an A chord, play it, however, you want to play it, bar it, this fingering, this fingering, whichever way you want to do, whatever way is comfortable for you.
The fourth chord we’re going to need is the B chord. I’m actually barring across the 2nd fret muting the low E string and then barring across the D, G, and the B on that 4th fret. So that’s chord number four.
And chord number five, we’re going to have to go to a C#m, so you’re barring across the 4th fret, your middle finger is on the D string, your pinkie is on the G string, and your ring finger is on the D string. The muting, the E—I'm sorry guys. The middle finger had a mind of its own. So that’s your C#m. Those are all the chords we’re going to need today. So let’s start it off with the solo.
Solo starts off on the 9th fret. Place your ring and pinkie finger on the D and the G strings. That’s right, D and G, double check it. We’re going to starts off with an open A then it’s going to go from your G-D-G-D-G-D, back to G. Now, you have to do a B bar chord, so you’re going to plat your middle finger on the G string and walk these two fingers up and bar across the 9th fret—or the 7th fret, sorry.
Next section, take your index finger, put it on the 7th fret, pick it, and slide to the 9th. Then pick 7th again on the B string, take your ring finger 9th fret on the G string, middle finger 8th fret G string. So let me go through that again slowly and one more time. So it’s open A-G-D-G-D-G-D-G-B bar chord, 7th on the B slide to 9th, back to 7th, 9th on the G string, 8th on the G string. We’ll run it through a little slowly. [Demonstration]
Now, we’re going to get into the verse. Now, this middle finger is already in perfect spot. Slide it right up to your E chord and we start to strum. Now, the strumming pattern, it doesn’t really matter what strumming pattern you use, whatever sounds best to you as long as you keep in timing with the song. You can use—I can give you three examples you can use. You can use a down, down, up, up, down, up, down, up. Or you can use a down, down, down, up, up, down, up, down, up. Or, option number three, down, down, down, up, down, down, down, up. All three are going to work for this song. It’s your preference, see what you like and then you can even mix and match from chorus to verse, okay?
So the beginning of the song was “He said son, have you seen the world,” so we’ll just start with that with our E, so I’m using the down, down, down, up, down, down, down, up. And then slide to your G#m, to your A, to your E, to your A, back to your E, to your B and you’re going to do the B for two measures, back to your E. [Demonstration] Same through with every verse. And when you get to the chorus, it’s going to go through that C#m to the A so you’re coming off at B, so you’re running that twice. Now, you have to go to C#m, slide everything over, to your A, back to your B for once, back to your C#m, back to your A. And that’s basically it. You got to play the intro again after the second time you run that chorus, after you come off that B—second time on the chorus. You’ll just play the solo—sorry guys, you can’t see me—yeah, the second time after that, the second chorus. You’re going to play the solo over again, the intro that we did, and then you’re back to the verse. And then chorus and then back to the ending verse.
So that’s basically the whole song. Have fun with it, play around, I’m still working on it myself but I figured I’d put something up for you guys to get you started as well. So take care and have fun, keep practicing, and be safe!
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